Gone but not forgottonTwo filmographers document Orion’s history-making playoff run

March 28, 2012

By Chris Ehrmann

Review Intern

The Lake Orion boys’ basketball team unlikely and exciting playoff run has come to a close, but thanks to two students who created a series of videos about the players’ journey throughout the playoffs, it won’t be forgotten.

Lake Orion’s Varsity basketball team made its way through district, regionals, and finals, but their ride ended at the semi-finals level. Regardless of that, two students in the Television Production Workshop (TPW) decided to document the story of the team going through the finals for the first time since 1925. In the class the two students, Adam Liddicoatt and Patrick Tunison, met where Liddicoatt was documenting the team for his beat. They got together and filmed the first game with a digital camera, then later on edited it on a computer.

“We were going to film the first basketball game, and midway through we thought that we should turn this into a cinematic event to celebrate the team,” said Tunison.

“I had to cover the district game for my beat and I needed Patrick’s help filming the game,” said Liddicoatt. “We used a 60D Canon camera to shoot the videos, then we would go to Patrick’s house to edit the footage on his computer using Adobe’s film editing software. After we finished editing it we said ‘why don’t we make it into something special’ and we kept it going.”

Liddicoatt and Tunison have documented the games throughout the playoffs and have since put the videos on Facebook where they have gotten almost universally positive reception from students and team members alike. Senior Justin Walakonis, a basketball player, saw the videos and said he enjoyed them.

“I really like the videos and the way it shows the team to people,” Walakonis said.

Both have received multiple comments of accolade from various students. Although, despite the widespread praise there were some who did not agree with it as much.

“I was surprised when almost every video had over 750 likes on Facebook,” said Liddicoatt. “We have gotten a lot of positive feedback, and not a lot of negative feedback. Although there were some who did not like it, but overall I am glad that most people like it.”

Interestingly enough both of them decided that they would like to take this into the future. They are even in talks with starting a business for it. Tunison and Liddicoatt said that they would like to start documenting other events and would like to take it into a career, because, as Tunison said, he has been making these videos on and off since sixth grade.

“At first I wanted to just make a cool video, but after making it, I wanted to do it more for the team and the community and I liked doing it,” said Liddicoatt.

“We both really want to start a business where we film for special events like weddings or graduation parties,” said Tunison. “I would like to go college for cinematography and I would want to go to Columbia or Chicago University because they are good schools for that type of thing.”

They wanted to thank everyone for the support they have received and giving them the possibility to make it happen. Tunison thanked his partner, Liddicoatt, the TPW instructor Roger Smith and his family. Liddicoat meanwhile thanked his mom who introduced him to the subject, as well as Tunison’s mother who showed support for the duo.

The videos are available via Facebook or Youtube. They are also now hosted on The Lake Orion Review’s Facebook page.